After the break with Rome and the Catholic Church, the English King Henry VIII decides to dissolve the English monasteries. Today the monastery ruins are part of the English landscape and the cultural identity of the country.

The dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII was the reason, why there is such a great number of ruins in Great Britain. Most monasteries were destroyed in the years 1536-1540.The abbeys, once centers of medieval english faith, learning and trade were abandoned and left as ruins.Today, the abbeys are part of the english landscape and the cultural identity of the country.

The work about the British Abbeys was the first, where I have used my special lighting technology to illuminate large buildings and landscapes in this extent. I photographed the places with a large format camera on 4×5 inch slide film. I completed this work during several journeys over a period of two years.

During the same time when I started the series about the British Abbeys, I had a great interest in the paintings of Romanticism and its major painters like William Turner, Caspar David Friedrich and John Constable. In the paintings of these and other romantic painters you can always find the motif of the monastery ruins as a place of longing.

Are the images of ruins interesting because they present not a finished picture, but provide room for the imagination? Not just since the Romanticism, ruins were a symbol of the (human) mortality. Art historians point rather to the contrary: the ruins are a symbol of perfection and harmony of the original buildings, an ideal of the past in the future and a new beginning in a changing society.

The gothic ruin of the Middle Ages is also interesting, because this period at regular intervals come into vogue. Then historical facts were mixed with popular interpretation of history. People are interested in the old and the past, they deal with the mysterious and dark. Not only the Romantics used the Middle Ages for their purposes, just today, the Middle Ages of the historians is quite different from the Middle Ages of the many passionate followers.

The photographs are influenced by this view of the Romantic and the modern view of the Middle Ages.

A great success was the publication of this picture essay in the german magazine GEO and Smithsonian Magazine that resulted in the publication of a book and calendar.

The book was published in 2000 by Eulen Verlag and the texts of journalist Ralph Kendlbacher. It was my first book publication. The book is now out of print and only available in antiquarian bookshops.

The photographs are available as prints in two versions.1. Print behind acrylic glass (glossy or matt) and mounted on 3 mm Dibond.2. High quality Baryte paper in a very nice white wooden shadow gap frame.

The standard side height of the print is either 60 cm, 90 cm or 120 cm with corresponding side length depending on the chosen photgraph. We already realized some special formats > 120 cm, just ask. Smaller formats to frame by yourself are also available.

A good description about the prints can be found on the print page here. The complete list, availability and price list can be requested below by email.